Cisco said the deployment puts EastLink on a path to eventually progress to 100 Gigabit Ethernet, should it choose to do so. In the meantime, EastLink achieves significant reductions in network complexity to help lower the total cost of ownership, Cisco said.

As a platform for carrier Ethernet networks, the Cisco ASR 9000 is designed to deliver a per-slot capacity of up to 400 gigabits per second and to scale up to 6.4 terabits per second. It also provides rich-service capabilities, including nonstop video, while maintaining a reduced carbon footprint, Cisco added.

EastLink recently announced a service offering 100 megabits per second, originally for its network in Halifax, for $160 per month.